Kingdom Hearts: Re:coded Review - DS

Game Description:Kingdom Hearts Re:coded takes the exhilarating gameplay system the series is known for and adds some innovative new twists. Players can now dive into a new character growth system and enjoy an assortment of battle styles ranging from side-scrolling to shooting all in one gaming experience. Additionally, KINGDOM HEARTS Re:coded includes the Avatar Menu, which utilizes the Nintendo DS Tag Mode capabilities, allowing players to trade customizable avatar profiles and playable maps with their friends. Each floor map acquired adds to the player’s unique System Sector, which can be explored for items, experience points and even a friend’s avatar items!

Kingdom Hearts: Re:coded Review

Sora is back in this port of Square Enix's 2008 mobile phone game. While there's plenty of Disney and Final Fantasy fan service, the fact that it's little more than a rehash of Kingdom Hearts with an inconsequential story that might drive away even ardent fans.

The Pros

Plenty of Disney and Final Fantasy

Varied gameplay challenges are a welcome break from the hack-and-slash grind

The return of the "command deck" system from Birth By Sleep is very welcome

The Cons

Highly inconsequential story

Find the backdoors into system challenges can degrade into pixel hunts

Basically a rehash of the original Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts: Re:Coded Review:

Kingdom Hearts fans can be forgiven for getting a little tired of spinoffs. After all, there hasn't been a true numbered sequel since 2006. Square Enix has kept their cards close to the vest with this franchise, probably because it's one of the few surefire megahits they have left in this post-Final Fantasy XIII world.

The latest spinoff, Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded is a port of a mobile phone series that was released only in Japan (and yes, it shows); however, despite being something of a quick and dirty money grab, it's truer to its roots than Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and even manages a few flashes of ingenuity along the way.

Return to the Beginning

It's appropriate that KH Re:Coded opens with a string of highlights from the first two console games, because that's basically what it is: a highlight reel. Specifically, a highlight reel of the very first game.

The locales should be familiar to Kingdom Hearts fans, as they were almost all present in the original game and in order no less. The difference is that the story is presented as a kind of simulation in which a digital Sora is tasked with unraveling the mystery surrounding a number of messages that appear in Jiminy Cricket's diary. It's a cute excuse to revisit previous assets, but it's still very much an excuse: after exploring Wonderland for the umpteenth time, Kingdom Hearts fans will undoubtedly be wishing even harder for a true sequel.

Moreover, while the story ties into the PSP's Birth by Sleep, the conclusion really isn't that consequential in the grand scheme of things, as it really only covers a minor plot point from the mythos. And somehow, it just doesn't feel very Kingdom Hearts-like to be running through digital representations of the various magical kingdoms and destroying computer glitches (represented by the Heartless and lots of glowing red boxes). It's certainly not on the order of the Legion of Doom-style conspiracy of Disney villains from the original game.

In short, the story and the premise makes Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded makes it feel like the minor mobile phone game it really is.

Being the port of an episodic mobile phone game does have its benefits though. Take some of the gameplay challenges, for instance, which at least have the benefit of being extremely varied.

Each world typically has its own set of unique challenges, which is a welcome break from the typical hack-and-slash action for which the series has become known. As an example, the final section of Traverse Town features a 2D platforming section that is actually pretty fun. True, it's very much in the mold of a simple cellphone game, but the jumping and combat mechanics are solid enough that it secretly makes me wonder if Kingdom Hearts should have been a 2D platformer all along (I kid, I kid).

Also appearing are "system challenges," which periodically pop up throughout each world. In these areas, the world reverts to something faintly resembling Tron (no surprise, given that Tron is one of Tetsuya Nomura's favorite films), and a certain number of glowing enemies must be defeated to continue. The inclusion of individual side challenges -- kill twenty foes, beat it in 200 seconds, and so on -- are a nice touch, but I often felt irritated when the system challenges appeared. Apart from the fact that it's sometimes very difficult to find the well-hidden "backdoors" into the system, they represent one element that does not mesh especially well with the world of Kingdom Hearts.

I ask Kingdom Hearts fans why they enjoy playing this series: is it for the simplistic combat? No, the reason this series has become a crossover hit is because it does a good job of staying true to the Disney license while introducing elements of Final Fantasy. The system challenges completely remove that element from the equation, and combined with the pixel-hunting aspect of finding the "backdoors," they're probably the weakest part of Re:Coded.

Message in a Bottle

Nevertheless, given the choice, I would still rather play Re:Coded than the most recent DS iteration: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.

My problem with 358/2 Days was that the Disney characters too often on the periphery, and that the Final Fantasy characters were absent entirely. That's not a problem in Re:Coded, which features regular appearances by characters like Cloud and Hades, and just generally feels more like a true Kingdom Hearts adventure. More importantly, it doesn't have the intensely boring collect-a-thon missions found in 358/2 Days, which often brought the pace of that game to a grinding halt.

I should stress that Kingdom Hearts fans looking for a decent story will be very disappointed, as Re:Coded is really little more than a "greatest hits" highlight of the original game, with the Castle Oblivion thrown in for good measure. It's a relatively minor entry that can probably be safely ignored by all but the most diehard Kingdom Hearts fans.

At the end of the day though, it has two of the ingredients most critical to a successful Kingdom Hearts game: plenty of Disney and plenty of Final Fantasy, with a few interesting challenges along the way. It's obviously no Kingdom Hearts III -- it's not even a Birth by Sleep -- but as an appetizer for better things to come (like the forthcoming 3DS game), it will suffice.

Comments are Closed

There must be an obvious reason why Square Enix/Disney are releasing just spinoffs. I mean how are you going to understand what happened in the KH story? Think about it for a moment. If there was no spinoffs, how would you understand the story? If their was no KH:358/2 Days, how would you know what was happening during the time Sora was asleep for a year because of the events of Chain of Memories. I do wish SE would hurry it up with KH3, but there are questions that still need to be answered. There is something called patience and some people need to have that. I think the newest KH, Drea, Drop Distance, is going to tell us SOMETHING about KH3 from the trailer I saw. And look at this, KH3 is going to be the end of just the Xehanort Saga. That means THERE IS MORE TO COME.

im bout to start boycotting square enix for one the games are getting worse and worse i like kh but the spin offs are annoying and i cant deal with another one and whats the deal with japan exclusives why dont we deserve to get the same game that not fair at all we dont have american exclusives so why should they

I understand that not everyone is thrilled about this being a replay of Kingdom Hearts 1, but for me this game couldn't have arrived at a better time, this is my first game in the Kingdom Hearts series. I am having a blast. It makes me want my PS2 back so I can play the first three Kingdom Hearts games. This game was the perfect way to jump into the series and I thank Square Enix, the best game company out there, for releasing it. I hope KH3D and Versus XIII are available in the US soon. :D

I enjoyed playing this game, but in the new KH for the 3DS, i hope they have different disney worlds. When playing Recoded, playing through worlds such as Wonderland. Agrabah, and Olympus it gave me sort of a been there, done that feeling and i don't think i would go through the same worlds yet again on a different game.

Re:coded was suprisingly not a bad game, and im all for hurrying up for kh 3 but you know an interesting release would be a combo ps3 pack with kh final mix and kh2 final mix that way fans get what they want a home console game with a bit of new content available in English, and it probably wouldnt deviate from the whole overall process of bringing kh3 out and maybe even extra content could be added as well. I'd honestly buy it cuz playing the old games on anewer system with extra content doesnt sound that bad

All ritey! I just gotta say it, I am a new person to this series and came in on this game and I don't care in this case whether the story was second rate (which it was) because the gameplay itself is INCREDIBLY entertaining!! Many people here havent played this game and yet still complain about it, it actually is a great ds game!! The rpg elements of the game are heaps of fun, and the variety of gameplay methods is so good after sitting on the one for a period of time! (I especially enjoyed the Colisseum part of the game which was reminiscent of both final fantasy and pokemon turn based attack games) So my suggestion is, don't pass on this game just because a reviewer said too!! I'm sure you'll enjoy it and if not at least its your own opinion not some random reviewer!!

I'd hardly call Birth By Sleep a filler game, as some people on here have... It's the only installment in the series since 2006 that wasn't a rehash of something already released. Doesn't anyone realize that Square-Enix has tricked a lot of people into playing the same game multiple times? I'll be skipping this one. I have already played Kingdom Hearts.

Thankfully, BBS shows us Kingdom Hearts III is coming... but you'll have to get past Kingdom Hearts 3DS first. Which looks like a REALLY weird game.

Kingdom Hearts has enough filler for it to register as an ANIME! (See Naruto, Bleach, or anything form Japan) Congrats you sick bastards. They sure have a problem counting to 3, One, Two, Kingdom Hearts 3. WHATS SO HARD?!

now everyone look just calm down 4 peaks sake stop with all the complaining cuz at least we got sumtihn. what u wanna do then keep playin kh2 until it gets so boring tht ure lik 4get square and kh. so what if squre were to release kh3 right now. one ud be like wtf cuz u wont kno whats going on. plus nun of the games are spinoffs because chain of memories gave us kh2 without tht weed be like wtf on kh2. birth by sleep defintaly waznt a spinoff cuz practically it was supposed to be the first kingdom hearts. and lastly this re:coded not a spinoff cuz it were based on the events after kh2 but before sora gets the letter from mickey which pretty much explains all the connections from each game. so can everyone stop complaining plus were getting a sequel soon kingdom hearts (3d) ddd. aniway 4 tha mean time get re coded and also catch up on some final fantasy games will ya kh arent the only series square has plus remember final fantasy was the begininng.

Man I like kingdom hearts, I played KH, KHII and KH RE: CHAIN OF MEMORIES (too hard to beat though..screw you Riku) who cares about a remake of the original I already freakin played it. I don't care about "extra spiciness" to it cut the suspense and make KH III ( weird to say since I don't have a PS3...yet). I appreciated chain of memories on the Ps2 because originally it was on the game boy advance an didn't look interesting, glad to be proven wrong though. (I hate the card system though and the difficulty is ridiculous as mentioned earlier.) Back to the point, seriously, whats with all the re-this and re- that, how many RE'-S are there gonna be? the only recent kingdom hearts game I want is Birth by sleep cause that has alot of NEW elements in it that makes it INTERESTING! Seriously Square Enix no one wants Re:Re: Re: Releases forever, it gets repetitive.

first of all, i just want to say, that I find Kingdom Hearts, better than most Final Fantasy games. And while you say that the non console release games are spin-offs i disagree, they are more companion games than anything else. because a spin-off, focuses on a different story, pertaining to other characters in the series, while yes the non console games to pertain to other characters it is still all relevant to the main plot. i played re:coded, and the plot scheme that was at the end, wasn't small... as a matter of fact it was pretty large. and also about KH3 expect it next year, Tetsuya Nomura, said that they are going to try to get at least one game developed and released a year, and to expect KH3 in 2012. The only games that i want to complain about coming over here are the final mixes... Tetsuya Nomura mainly stays in the background on the final Fantasy games, being character designer, or working with the battle system, in Kingdom Hearts, he sweeps us away with a story line, which pulls you in from the beginning. The reason I play the KH series is because of story, I would have to say if the plot didn't keep me guessing as much as it does, and wasn't so entertaining. I wouldn't play it because of the controls, which do get better with every game. I have also heard that 3D will be all about the Mark of Mastery Exam between Riku and Sora, which RE:coded brings up at the end, because of Xehanort being around again... yes the final boss from bbs, and every single console game. in order to truly appreciate the plot in KH the cutscenes must be watched every time you play through it, because i know there are some people who don't and have no interest in the game because -nothing good is happening- yeah the plot takes a while to pick up in each game, but its such a satisfying play when you take it in as a whole, and stick through the first one or two boring levels.